Having left the meeting today, I consider it my duty to explain to you, in case of any party (and quasi-party) gossip and distortions, the significance of my action.

I consider myself not only entitled, but obligated to refuse participation in the so-called "discussion," which serves as a pretext for the liquidationist section of the editorial board to put forward the vilest gossip from the vilest of anti-party elements. When Martov, for example, refers to the fact that the Recallists are part of the party, while at the same time loudly spreading rumors from the most hooligan elements of Recallist emigration—to the effect that comrade Viktor's affair has been concluded or hushed up as a result of bribery,267 and while expressing a demand to protect himself and Dan from such suspicions from the "party faction," it is clear to everyone that under the guise of "protection" from Recallist blackmail, we are being presented with nothing other than liquidationist complicity in Recallist escapades of the worst sort.

Considering it beneath my dignity to participate in a "discussion" in which such things are said, I declare that henceforth I shall endeavor to leave the meeting whenever such "debate" occurs.

With comradely greetings, N. Lenin

7. XI. 10.

Written in Paris (local)

First published in 1933

in Lenin Miscellany XXV

Printed from the manuscript